What a strong lady in a extremely difficult situation. Hats off to the pilot who came along side of her in the air to help her get down with just the 1 engine. Prayers to her and her family over loss of her husband.
Wow, this is simply incredible in a horrible way. Even if she was used to flying with her husband, to be able to take over the controls while something was wrong with him and to then have to deal with an engine going out? And still she lands the plane successfully? Simply amazing and many props to her and the other pilot who helped. He certainly married a quality wife and I'm sure he would be very proud of her.
I tend to believe that he is proud of her and may have even been with here if she had no flight experience....Landing a twin with an engine out and depending on which engine she lost determined how much usable power whe actually had....This is just amazing; a miracle even.
A great success story for the record books. The "Beechcraft Pilot Proficiency Program" offers a pilot companion program with ground school and flight instruction on doing just this sort of thing. This story is an indication that this sort of thing does happen and can have a happy ending.
Does anyone know of a FAA program for spouses of pilots? So that they can fly the plane in emergency. It was to be taught by CFI and wife didn't need a physical.
Very brave and courageous lady with quick reaction in difficult situation. Very good of the pilot who came alongside to help her.Prayers to the lady and her family over her loss of husband.
I certainly laud the heroic efforts of the wife landing the aircraft, and the husband and wife team who kept her calm while assisting the wife in landing the C414, however I believe the claims of her landing the aircraft with one engine out appear to be mistaken.
According the the Green Bay Press Gazette article [for which Thomas Skubal kindly provided the link], "The Cessna was getting low on fuel and she had been more than three hours in flight after first leaving Marco Island, Fla., then refueling in Rome, Ga., and heading for Sturgeon Bay. Neither engine lost power, but the plane landed with less than a quarter tank of gas." In looking at the accompanying photos of the stricken C414, the tips of all of the blades are bent backward, providing some evidence that both props were turning upon making contact with the runway.
Wow! Best example I can think of for Spouses taking co-pilot course. She had to have a lot of skill to bring that twin down...she had "minor injuries" ...did she have an incident on landing? Also..."twin-engined" and "cessna" ...was this a 310? 340? 401?
Most of the major aircraft owners groups have a course like this along with AOPA (as previously mentioned). If you don't own your own plane, then a local CFI should be able to help. I have a course like this that I teach here in Texas about once a year.
congratulations goes out to my CFI Wayne, who was able to talk from the tower at GRB to tell her where the controls and airspeed was and to drop the gear.
The link in the article for the audio release includes some video of the not-so-smooth landing. All in all, however, she did a fantastic job, considering the circumstances.
It appears this is a re-post. The Chicago Tribune is calling it "Breaking News" but it seems to have happened a few days ago. Sorry for the double-squawk.
It is quite clear that you are still young and stupid. If you are lucky you will get there someday, and you will find that even over 70 your piloting skills are still there.
Dude, I am an English teacher. So I just cringe when I see these mistakes. They are supposede to be Americans educated here in the states? They're more like my foreign language students, although my students have a valid reason for making mistakes. Don't sweat it man, you'll just give yourself a headache, lol.
Typos are nothing. But this 'your' thing is actually very often NOT a mistake but rather an affectation. It signifies membership of a particular internets subculture, just as saying 'internets' instead of 'internet' does.
There is an alternative but it is an expensive one: the FAA shall seek legislaton banning old timers over 65 to fly all by themselves and that a safety pilot should be always on board.
A more economic solution would be to allow the safety pilot to be a senior citizen too, if so both elderly gentlemen can continue enjoying their passion and at the same time do it in a safe manner.
An 80-year-old US woman with little flying experience has staged an emergency landing in Wisconsin after her pilot husband collapsed and died.
Helen Collins remained calm as she brought the small Cessna plane in to land at Cherryland Airport, even though she said she knew her husband was dead.
She had taken basic lessons in taking off and landing 30 years ago, her son told the Associated Press news agency.
Wife, 80, lands plane in Door County for dying husband
STURGEON BAY — An experienced pilot and the 80-year-old woman he helped land a plane without a pilot’s license were hailed as heroes Tuesday by Door County Sheriff Terry Vogel.
Robert Vuksanovic, 53, of Sturgeon Bay joined Helen Collins in the sky and helped guide her to the ground after her husband suffered an apparent heart attack while piloting the plane Monday afternoon.
80-yr-old woman lands plane after husband dies mid-flight
An 80-yr-old woman, flying home from Florida with her husband, has to take over the controls and land the plane after her husband dies from a heart attack during the flight.
